Olympias Earrings
This exquisite hoop earring is inspired by a Hellenistic Greek example from the second century BC. Its playful design honors the circle and the sphere.
Olympias of Epirus was the wife and mother of kings! Olympias married King Phillip II of Macedon in 357 BC, with whom she had a son, Alexander the Great. Alexander would grow to be one of the greatest warriors in history, and, eventually, king. But his rise to power was neither easy nor linear, and Olympias had a great part in his success.
While Alexander was a young boy, his father divorced his mother and married a woman named Cleopatra. Olympias went to live in her native Epirus, but when Philip was unexpectedly assassinated in 336 BC, she returned to Macedon, and had Cleopatra and her daughter killed. This removed all impediments for Alexander, who then rose to power.
"Thus it was that at the age of twenty years Alexander received the kingdom, which was exposed to great jealousies, dire hatreds, and dangers on every hand." - Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 11.1.
